Rip Empson

Rip Empson is a writer, explorer, eager learner and part-time rabble-rouser — whatever that means. He's worked as a senior associate at Morgenthaler Ventures and Canvas Venture Fund, and before venture capitalizing, Rip spent nearly four years at TechCrunch, the leading technology publication and media dynamo, where he covered startups.

Within the Whacky World Of Startups, Rip focused most of his attention on chronicling the rise of technology and ambush of innovation on health and education.

But between you and me, I hear he's especially passionate about any and all forms of disrupting — particularly those that are disrupting the disruptable disruptions — and anyone or anything that can quench his insatiable thirst for disrupt-a-lutions.

Rip has been quoted by various people at various times – some of them publications and probably super wicked famous people referencing his work – some of them people mistakenly re-tweeting him thinking he’s Rip Torn.

Is he a budding national treasure? You said it, not him.

As to what he’s doing right now? He’s either transferring his life savings from Scramble With Friends tokens to Bitcoin or vice versa. Hard to say, really.

Latest from Rip Empson

If today isn’t your first day in the tech industry (or reading TechCrunch), then you’re likely familiar with the rise of the accelerator program, a phenomenon that has swept through Startup Land like wildfire over the last five years. Pioneered by early movers like Y Combinator and TechStars as part of experiments that aimed to identify the best ways to support nascent companies… Read More

Adam Draper and Brayton Williams launched Boost.vc in 2012 at a time when the accelerator market was beginning to burst at the seams with new entrants — some would say it was nearing saturation. In an effort to differentiate their approach and attract quality startups amidst the growing noise in Accelerator Land, the Boost founders decided to put a premium on experimentation.
For… Read More

It’s no secret that the U.S. healthcare system is in desperate need of change, especially as costs have continued to rise, while the quality of care remains the same. While technology will play a critical role in reversing this trend, many assume that improving outcomes is simply a matter of putting smarter technology in the doctor’s office. However, the problem isn’t a… Read More

Clever launched out of Y Combinator in 2012 on a mission to help K-12 schools bring the latest education software into their classrooms. By giving districts a central way to manage student and teacher accounts in each learning application, and closely integrating those apps with their existing data systems, Clever saves developers from having to write one-off integrations for every school… Read More

Today, you can be anywhere in the world in a matter of clicks. Thanks to globalization and the plucky old Information Superhighway, our world is shrinking. Inquisitive globetrotters can pop over to Google Earth, pilot through volcanoes in Hawaii or navigate a few Norwegian fjords and still be home for dinner. Vasco de Gama? Not impressed.
The sheer number of people not only coming online… Read More

New York City-based CommonBond launched in late 2012 on a mission to bring the power of person-to-person lending and crowdsourcing to the student debt crisis. With student debt in the U.S. having surpassed $1 trillion, college grads find themselves in an ugly situation today when it comes to subsidizing their education. Borrowing money from Uncle Sam means turning to federal loans and their… Read More

Over the last decade, Brazil has “come online” in a big way. The percentage of people using the Web in Brazil leapt from 9 percent in 2002 to about 50 percent in 2012, according to the ITU. With 60 million Brazilians now using Facebook, thanks to increasing access to the Internet and the rise of social media, the country is undergoing a digital transformation — and with… Read More

By now, you’ve probably heard about the mounting student loan crisis. Thanks to the financial crisis, the high cost of a college degree and comparatively high interest rates in the U.S., some 40 million Americans have amassed somewhere between $1.08 and $1.2 trillion in debt. With the average debt load nearing $30K per student in the class of 2012, it’s no wonder student loan debt… Read More

It’s been an active week in the world of education software, with this weekend bringing news of the second big-ticket acquisition of a veteran EdTech company in as many days. Last week, Renaissance Learning, the 29-year-old, Google Capital-backed analytics and assessment giant, was acquired by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman for a hefty $1.1 billion.
On the same day, rumors… Read More

With the arrival of Obamacare, millions of uninsured Americans are entering the healthcare system for the first time. As these new patients happily stream into waiting rooms, doctors are scrambling to keep pace with the increasing demand. Preserving a high standard of care amidst the waiting room blitz requires greater efficiency from medical practices, and doctors are desperate for solutions… Read More

For most students, learning within the traditional confines of the educational system has been something to be endured, rather than something that’s just as fun as it is rewarding. Every student knows that learning is more fun when content it comes alive and is personalized. In other words, when it’s actually adaptive, interactive and engaging.
Thankfully, advances in adaptive… Read More

Over the last year, BrightBytes has become a personal favorite in the ballooning world of education startups. The reason for this begins with the fact that when it comes to our beleaguered education system — from its skyrocketing costs to its middling outcomes and dwindling resources — many have begun to look at technology as a savior. Certainly few would argue that the litany of… Read More

Gogobot launched in 2010 in the early stage of a wave of new interest in the social travel space, as a glut of new startups promised to as a new generation of companies promised to transform stodgy old travel with the magic of the social graph. Some of those players built products on top of Facebook, growing quickly thanks to the instant-scale of Facebook’s platform. However, it was… Read More

Wix emerged in 2006 as part of a new generation of startups on a mission to do for website creation what Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr have done for bloggers and content creators. Riding the increasing demand for easy-to-use, DIY website builders, Wix is now one of the largest platforms of its kind on the Web, along with Weebly and SquareSpace. With over 40 million people now using its free… Read More

Historically, the U.S. educational system has struggled to get young people excited by and involved with STEM-related fields, especially computer science, which has actually seen a steady decline in participation over the last two decades, according to Time Magazine. Luckily, the winds of reform have begun to sweep into education, and parents, educators and even Uncle Sam have begun to pressure… Read More

Qlika launched out of UpWest’s fourth batch of Israeli-American startups in March to tackle a big problem in online marketing: Localization. In other words, what’s the point of spending millions of dollars on marketing campaigns — across search, social and display — if those campaigns look exactly the same in California as they do in Sydney? Ideally, with conversion… Read More

Over the past few years, change has come to the textbook market in a big way. Chegg, one of the first companies to bring textbook purchasing and rentals online and reach a sizable audience, has begun to re-position. Affordable, “open” digital textbook pioneer, Flat World Knowledge, is moving “beyond” the publishing business, too. Pearson has been seeing lower demand for… Read More

If we’re going to prepare future generations for the increasingly technical workforce, and world, then computer science and engineering will need to be given greater credence in early education — both in and outside of the classroom. While that may sound like a given to some readers, the fact is that the U.S. education system is struggling to get young people excited about and… Read More

Skillshare launched in 2011 to give those interested in continuing to learn outside the classroom a place to get real-world skills from both online and offline classes. Over the past year, the New York-based startup has moved towards the massive, open online course approach, connecting subject experts across industries with anyone looking to “get their learn on” through… Read More

With outstanding student debt now over $1 trillion in the U.S., it’s clear that college grads are struggling mightily to make payments and refinance their debt. Meanwhile, thanks to decades of plummeting borrowing costs, millions upon millions of consumers have been able to refinance mortgages and begin paying down debt.
In some irrational alternate universe, one might expect that… Read More